September 12, 2017 - Boils, Boils, Boils

I had the pleasure of fishing with Adam Eakle who hosts hunting and fishing videos for KSL TV (Channel 5) in Salt Lake City. He wanted to make a Lake Powell video of striper boil fishing. We agreed to fish in the northern lake on September 7th. The preparation for the event was simple. Stripers were not boiling well in the southern lake so I asked those fishing in the northern lake on Wayneswords.com to give quick fish reports. I received this information:

Boils were consistently seen in the northern lake from Good Hope Bay to White Canyon. The best time to see surfacing fish was from 7-9 AM and 4-6 PM. After the boils ceased stripers could still be caught on spoons in the vicinity of the boil.

With this information to guide us, we launched from Bullfrog at dawn and headed uplake scanning for boils as we cruised. We saw a nice sunrise at Buoy 110. A few minutes later near Buoy 113 we saw our first boil. It was small and widespread but the first stripers were caught. Around the next corner (Buoy 114) we found the first big boil and caught stripers on top for the next 40 minutes. We cruised uplake looking for more and saw them near the left hand wall just past the floating restroom. We caught boiling fish constantly for the next 45 minutes. When they went down five anglers quickly filleted over 100 stripers with electric knives on the boat. With the fillets cooling down in the ice chest we resumed our trip to White Canyon. We were not disappointed to see a quick boil as we neared Battleship Rock. These fish did not stay up long so we used spoons to catch a few more. Then we turned around to head back down lake and ran right into another boil at 10:20 AM. Total count from White Canyon was 30 more stripers bringing the morning striper total to 130 fish. Not a bad day. The breeze increased so we headed in.

The Lake Powell striper boil video will air on KSL.com on September 30th at 6:30 PM.

Today we launched at Wahweap Stateline and passed through the Castle Rock Cut. Stripers were reportedly caught on the Warm Creek side of Castle Rock the previous day on spoons with a few hitting the surface. We saw a few fish come up behind Castle Rock so we headed for the splash rings but no more fish surfaced. A quick look at the graph changed our attitude from surface to deep water spoons. Spoons were deployed and the stripers jumped into the boat for the next half hour. When the sonar screen went blank we saw stripers breaking the surface near shore. We grabbed the surface lures and rushed toward shore where another 10 fish were caught in wide spread boils. With 30 fish in the cooler we headed toward the back of Warm Creek but were delayed near the floating restroom by a bigger and tighter boil. Twenty more stripers were caught on surface lures. The surface action quit by 9 AM. At the fish cleaning station we counted 55 stripers caught in less than 3 hours.

This week’s report is simple. Look for surface action for the first 3 hours in the morning. Cast surface lures to boiling fish. After they go down find them on the graph and drop spoons to the bottom to catch many more. Striper fishing is hot. Expect this to continue through the rest of September and into October. Boil time is the first 3 hours after daylight and then the last 2 hours before dark. They also come up randomly during the day.

Smallmouth bass have been reportedly boiling with stripers on the San Juan. Stripers chase shad which run toward the shore where they can hide in the brush line. Bass wait in the brush for shad to swim by and ambush them. Near shore this morning we caught some nice 2-pound smallmouth on surface lures while casting to stripers.

Fishing success is heading for a fall peak that has not been seen for a very long time. Don’t leave home without a surface lure and a spoon close at hand.

This web site has no affiliation with, nor is it owned, operated, or funded by any Federal, State or Local government agencies, or private businesses. It is the sole property of Wayne Gustaveson. The purpose is to promote fishing and recreational opportunities while protecting Lake Powell from aquatic invaders and other threats. I enjoy doing it and hope you can benefit from the information contained within.Wayne Gustaveson